The Detroit Lions are continuing to get some positive injury news. After telling local media on Monday that they hope to get Pro Bowl safety Brian Branch back to practice this week, Lions coach Dan Campbell told 97.1 The Ticket on Tuesday that starting center Cade Mays is also expected to return to practice this week.
“He’s doing great,” Campbell said. “He and Branch are on the same plan right now. So the plan is to get them worked into practice. We’re waiting on the final call from the doctor on both
to say, ‘Yes, they can practice.’ We’d love to get them going this week. Doesn’t mean they’re going to play (vs. Cardinals).”
Mays suffered a wrist fracture early in training camp, after the Lions gave him a three-year, $25 million contract to fill their void at center—still vacant by the retirement of Frank Ragnow last year and the cost-cutting release of Graham Glasgow earlier this season.
As Campbell alluded to, just because Mays and Branch are returning to practice doesn’t mean they will play in this Sunday’s game against the Cardinals. Their return to practice opens a 21-day evaluation period where the Lions can activate each player from their injury list ot the 53-man roster at any time. But until that happens, they won’t count against the roster. Typically, the Lions have preferred to give players coming off a long-term injury at least two weeks of practice before activating them.
Mays’ return would be a help to an offensive line that has played well, but inconsistently. Detroit has allowed just eight sacks through four games, but their 4.2 yards per carry on the ground rank just 16th in the NFL.
In Mays’ absence, Juice Scruggs has played valiantly, but the center job almost certainly belongs to Mays when he’s ready to go. That said, last week Campbell noted that Scruggs would be considered in the left guard competition upon Mays’ return.
